Grand Canyon Milky Way Splendor

A recent visit to the Grand Canyon in Arizona yielded this image of the Milky Way in very dark skies. This was the first night of a four day, three night hike from the North Rim to the South Rim, and was located at the Cottonwood Campground at 4,080 feet. The image looks south and was captured at 2:18 am MST on Monday, June 17, 2024 using a Nikon Z6ii camera mounted on a Joby SLR-Zoom Gorilla Pod tripod, placed on a camp metal food storage box. Trees and shrubs in the foreground appear red, reflected by my headlamp. The 1.03 magnitude star Antares can be seen at lower right. The image is a 13 second exposure at f/4, ISO 12800, 24mm focal length.